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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

NEW YORK (JTA) — Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein
recalled the role of his rabbi and Jewish organizations in helping him realize
he could succeed despite growing up in a working-class neighborhood.

“The only person I knew who put on a suit everyday was our
rabbi,” Blankfein told a crowd of 1,700 fellow Wall Street insiders and guests
Monday night at a $26 million record-breaking fundraising dinner for
UJA-Federation of New York.

“Growing up [in public housing in the East New York section
of Brooklyn], every family I knew struggled.

I thought every Jewish father
either drove a cab or worked in the post office. I didn’t know anyone whose
father was a doctor, lawyer or other professional,” the Goldman Sachs chairman
and CEO said upon receiving the Gustave L. Levy Award at the event at the
Hilton New York.

“That may seem unreal to some of you, but I only knew what I
could see. Today many of you may not know a Jewish family that is struggling,
you don’t see them, but there are. There are thousands of families not more
than three miles away from here.”

Blankfein credited his rabbi and his involvement in
federation-funded afterschool programs and summer camp for helping him “to
think about the world beyond East New York,” ultimately leading to his decision
to attend college.

With a smile, he also credited the local Jewish Y with
teaching him to swim and giving him a chance to earn spending money as a
lifeguard.

“Benefactors I would never know, who I could never thank,
from an earlier wave of Jewish immigration funded these organizations that were
so meaningful to my friends and to me,” Blankfein said.

The evening, which UJA-Federation officials said topped last
year’s total funds raised of $23 million, also featured remarks from the
Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and New York Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Attendees gave two standing ovations for Alan “Ace”
Greenberg, vice chairman emeritus of JP Morgan and a former Levy award winner,
for his role in building Wall Street support for UJA-Federation.

David Wassong, the co-head of private equity at Soros Fund
Management, was honored with The Wall Street Young Leadership Award.